clean coal

Welcome to my world, won’t you step in and stay awhile. Your outer world … your environment, the noise level, the relative calm or chaos in your life … is usually a reflection of your inner world, the degree of peace and equanimity you experience in your mind. You made it, it is Friday, you are here, right on time!

Earthlings Beware

After a former British Ministry of Defense official revealed this week, that the Royal Air Force has fired on UFOs several times “with little effect.” RAF planes had had numerous encounters with mysterious aircraft, and had only fired when a UFO was “deemed a threat.” Perhaps after a visit to the local Sushi Bar and a generous helping of Blowfish?

Noise Abatement Down Under

Two things I am not a big fan of, #1 is Boom Boxes, and the people who drive around all day long with vibrating trunk lids and scream at the girl at the counter when they order their food. #2 is this ridiculous fad of these incredibly over-sized non-mufflers on these small foreign imports. Both I find equally irritating.

I found this over on Dustbury.com. Beware of the Phantom Expander. Not a new lingerie feature, but a vigilante of sorts: A “phantom” with a grudge is roaming the streets of Blenheim [NZ] armed with tubes of expanding building foam, exacting revenge on “wide-mouthed” boy-racer style car exhausts.

In an anonymous letter sent to The Marlborough Express, the self-styled “Phantom Expander” said he or she was randomly targeting vehicles with wide exhausts and filling them with the expanding foam.

“I have taken it upon myself to respond to the socially maladjusted Blenheim pinheads that have chosen to have a wide-mouthed-boy-racer exhaust installed on their car,” the letter said. The writer said in the letter received late last week that eight vehicles had already been targeted.

I hold no brief for non-muffling mufflers with fart-can outlets, but I have a feeling that the Expander will be fairly quickly caught in the act, and that the catcher, far from being amused, will take action against the lad’s own exhaust, as it were. One can only hope.

Southbound and Down

Newport News Virginia – A monarch butterfly released at the Virginia Living Museum made it all the way to Austin, Texas, covering more than 1,300 miles in three weeks. It was spotted by a 6-year-old boy doing a science project on monarch migration, the Newport News museum said. It’s the third time since 1996 that a butterfly tagged by the museum has been located.

Flagstaff Arizona – Drivers busted by photo-enforcement cameras along state highways in northern Arizona’s Coconino County will have to pay to challenge speeding tickets. Coconino County Justice Courts will charge $20 extra when drivers challenge or ignore their tickets. The only way for drivers to avoid the extra fee is to pay the ticket without question. There is a word for this in the legal community; it is called “extortion.”

Nice try … No Cigar

Minneapolis, Minnesota – A University of Minnesota study found that corn ethanol is no better than gasoline as a fuel and may be worse for air quality. The study estimated the economic costs to human health and well-being from gasoline, corn-based ethanol and plant-based ethanol. Researchers concluded that ethanol made from switchgrass and other plant materials is best.

Scientific proof now exists that it actually uses MORE energy to produce ethanol than it produces, so much for the miracle cure-all for America.

Here is another one that I like: “There’s been a lot of talk about coal being an unclean energy source. But the truth is, Southern Company is working toward building the world’s first zero-emissions, coal-fired generating plant.” Now let’s review, “zero emissions” does this mean that absolutely no CO2 is released into the atmosphere, is this a true statement or not?

Isn’t it curious, there are methods or procedures to use coal for gasoline, but no one in this country seems to want to investigate it or make use of the technology.

The procedure or formula was first introduced to the world during WWII when the German’s first discovered it, and South Africa has taken it upon themselves to improve the process and make it even more profitable.

So why is it that in South Africa, they are currently producing gasoline from coal, but in this country, which has an abundant supply of coal, the effort is not considered worthy of mention. Wonder why?

Punching In Early

Charleston West Virginia – Kanawha County teachers who come to work every day will no longer receive up to $1,050 in incentive pay. The attendance incentive was created in an effort to save on costs for substitute teachers. In the last school year, the county spent $582,000 more in incentive pay than it saved hiring fewer substitutes.

I wonder who it was that came up with this no-brainer, paying people bonus money just to show up? And of course, “where do I go to collect the $42,000.00 that someone owes me for my years of faithful on-time performance.”

On the same token, another school this week announced that they “were suspending Veteran’s Day and not celebrating it any more, as the majority of the students did not know the meaning of it.”

Here is a novel idea, you are a SCHOOL why don’t you TEACH THEM THE MEANING of the holiday.

Like the poster in the home room reads: “There is no end to your limitations, study hard, and always be on time.” Gawd, and we wonder why we are behind the rest of the world in scholastic endeavors.

There is no end to stupid, stupid is all around you, just look for it.

The next time you’re feeling a little uptight in your home, try to imagine that a total stranger somewhere, is taking notes on your behavior. You should be alright, just remember a few key points in life. The third donut is 1.5 donut’s too many, and the last piece of pie, is the best. Take a lesson from Wall Street, “Money cannot buy happiness … but it sure makes a pretty good down payment.” A few simple rules … for a better U.S.A..

Have a great weekend and keep a sharp eye peeled for the occasional UFO.

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Over eight years of the Bush Administration, the number of jobs in the nation has only increased 2%, the weakest job growth in the seven decades since these statistics have been complied. It will be interesting to see how he re-writes that one.

53% of Americans favor passage of a $775 billion stimulus package like the one Barack Obama wants to push thru Congress, while 36% are opposed. 76% say they support major new government spending on highways, bridges, and other public-works projects. 18% oppose the initiative outright.

Now some five and one-half months after George Bush was criticized heavily for passing legislation without consideration, we have a 650 page document, loaded with pork, that is being urged to be rushed through the legislative process in the very same manner. It had been my profound hope that members of Congress would have taken swift action on this, but it appears that they’re more likely to temporize it and move on.

Government deficit spending is not the solution to the problem, it has never worked before and it will not work now. This is the same type of political manure that America is famous for … Throwing massive amounts of money at a problem hoping it will just somehow go away. I suppose being all for it is alright, as long as you know what it is.

Spending our money here in our backyard is good policy and I am for that. Large random infusions of cash won’t work, if it is not directly linked to the economy. We need to be writing new law for solar, for wind power, for American business, giving them incentives to go after this lucrative prize.

I don’t believe we ought to be farming all of our business out to foreign concerns, selling off our real estate to other countries or turning our infrastructure over to people who do not live here. It is bad enough that we allow the hemorrhaging of our way of life and our society by allowing “American” companies to take the job overseas, and send our friends and neighbors to the house.

If we are going to build new roads and bridges, then use American technology and manpower, tools, to do it. Don’t farm it out to Mexico or someone else, simply because it is cheaper. We need a new power grid in this country, that is fine, and I agree with it. Don’t buy the wind turbines and the construction of the massive wind farms from the European concerns that are wanting to sell it to us.

I don’t know, it appears that a lot of folks possibly believe that “electricity is just going to fall from the sky on a lot of this” or something. Something has to turn; something has to burn, in order to make electricity.

You rush out and buy a New Volt from Chevrolet that doesn’t mean you are saving the planet, you still have TO PLUG IT IN SOMEHWERE it is still going to take something to power it. You don’t have to be an Al Gore protégé to figure that one out.

You don’t have to look around very far to see example of bad policy, just look south to Mexico City. The air pollution in Mexico City was once so bad that birds dropped dead while flying and children in school used to use brown crayons to draw pictures of the sky. Mexico cracked down and over a decade or so, it improved so that much of its 20 million residents are now breathing better.

So we know it can be done, but it won’t happen by burning more fossil fuels, or “Clean Coal” the lie of the coal companies. We need clean alternatives to our power problems, wind or solar, we do not need coal. When people like T.B. Pickens tell us that it can be done, and it should be done, we need to at least listen to the arguments.

Think wind power only creates electricity?

Think again.

Wind creates something else, like thousands of American jobs.

It produces clean energy; it is also good for the economy. Clean Coal is a lie, there is no such thing, it only exists in the imperfect unproven science of coal companies and nowhere else. The demand for sustainable, clean modern energy has never been greater and limitless wind power can be put to good use in more ways than one.

It is a win – win as long as we stick to the game plan.

Use our people – our manufacturing – to get the job done. Let’s keep our future in-house, not offshore. Let’s rewrite NAFTA, roll up our sleeves and get busy. Build something for our future generations and clean up our own backyard, then go help some foreigner with his.

All of this has happened before: The NAFTA National Anthem. It is imperative that we do not allow this to happen again.

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This mornings paper says that we are turning into a nation of pandering, God-less dogs, and that there is a decline in believers in this country.

In 2003, 90% of all American’s believed in a God, that is down to 80%. 82% of us used to believe in Heaven, now only 73% are sure it is still there.

68% of people surveyed believe in the devil (Satan) and only 59% appear to think he is still around.

69% of people believe that there is a place reserved for the evil, wicked and nasty, and only 62% in 2008 are now convinced of that.

A priest was being honored at his retirement dinner after 25 years in the parish. A leading local politician and member of the congregation was chosen to make the presentation and to give a little speech at the dinner.

However, he was delayed, so the priest decided to say his own few words while they waited: “I got my first impression of the parish from the first confession I heard here. I thought I had been assigned to a terrible place. The very first person who entered my confessional told me he had stolen a television set and, when questioned by the police, was able to lie his way out of it. He had stolen money from his parents, embezzled from his employer, had an affair with his boss’s wife, taken illegal drugs, and gave his sister VD”.

“I was of course appalled, he went on to say. But as the days went on I learned that my people were not all like that and I had, indeed, come to a fine parish full of good and loving people….”

Just as the priest finished his talk, the politician arrived full of apologies at being late. He immediately began to make the presentation and gave his talk: “I’ll never forget the first day our parish priest arrived,” said the politician. ‘In fact, I had the honor of being the first person to go to him for confession.’

Moral:

Never, Never, Never Be Late

There is also a new survey out on Bush, if anyone cares. America can’t wait for Bush to leave. Mr. Bush is currently on vacation in Crawford, Texas. This is the #1 President in vacation time, more than any other sitting president, and now that a new war has broken out in the Middle East he slinks away to Camp David.

He has decided to conveniently sit this one out (something he seems to be very good at Katrina, 9-11?) and is not going to intervene. Most likely he would be totally ineffective anyway, that is what his track record implies 99.6% of the time. What is interesting is that this problem between Israel and The Palestinians this is the same thing that he said “he would alleviate or fix in the next 19 months before leaving office.”

Looks like the ship has sailed on this one too.

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll finds that 75 percent of Americans are glad President Bush is leaving office; just 23 percent indicated that they will miss him. CNN notes that when Clinton left office, more Americans – 45 percent – said they would miss him. Twenty-eight percent also believe that Bush is the worst president
ever.

Next time you see a commercial on “Clean Coal” and all your buddies in the coal industry, think about this mess in Tennessee.

On last Monday, toxic coal sludge burst through a retention wall in eastern Tennessee, causing massive property and environmental damage. Federal studies have shown that coal ash contains “significant quantities of heavy metals like arsenic, lead and selenium, which can cause cancer and neurological problems.”

The incident – already being called the “largest environmental disaster of its kind in the United States” – may now be even worse than originally anticipated. Tennessee Valley Authority officials “initially said that about 1.7 million cubic yards of wet coal ash had spilled” in the disaster. Yesterday, however, they “released the results of an aerial survey that showed the actual amount was 5.4 million cubic yards, or enough to flood more than 3,000 acres one foot deep.” Read more here: Tennessee coal ash disaster three times larger than originally estimated.

Someone tried to hack my bank account.

Today when I went online to check some things, it gave me an error code, asked me to reset my password and I became suspicious, and went back to the original page and did it again (remember me?) and it gave me access. It said that I had “exhausted all my available attempts at opening my account with my password.” Which was not right, I had not been on the account in days, and I KNOW WHAT MY PASSWORD is, so that dog didn’t hunt. I guess no one is impervious to this kind of behavior, sure didn’t think it would happen to me, but it has. Ran a virus scan, which I had not done in a week or so, and there they were, four of them little nasty ##@##$@##@^* right on my hard drive.

Favorite Oklahoma Blog or Blog of the Year in Oklahoma

This is more or less “local news” Mike at OkieDoke.com has posted the necessary instructions for voting for your favorite Oklahoma Blog of the Year on his site. If you wish to vote for Creative Endeavors or any other blog you want honored you can do it at his site.

More than likely all I will get is an “honorable mention” or something like that. They are kind of “clannish” and “we are kind of independent” and I am not a dues paying member of the clan (mostly Staunch Republicans, and myself being a registered heathen dog …. hahahahaha). Vote if you want to, everyone loves to vote!

Uh We just stepped out for some Twinkies and some Ding Dongs officer

Anchorage, Alaska — Fire caused by unattended cooking led to the discovery of marijuana plants at an apartment. Firefighters found more than 50 plants at the residence Saturday night. No one was home at the time, but when the occupants returned, police were waiting for them. Police forwarded the matter to the district attorney.

Now you know things are bad, when the Lottery is losing money

Richmond, Virginia — State lottery officials are hoping for a late surge in sales to push their second New Year’s Millionaire Raffle past the break-even point. As of Monday morning, about 190,000 tickets had been sold, officials said. The agency needs to sell about 300,000 by Wednesday night to avoid taking a loss.

Strange Doings In The Heart Land

Awhile back, I read this piece where a group of Islanders in the South Pacific wanted to fell a tree for a canoe, they would assemble the entire village and then after picking out a suitable tree, the entire village would walk around and around the base of this tree, shouting and yelling at it. Their collective theory on this was that the “shouting and the yelling killed the tree” and when it eventually fell (because they had effectively trampled its shallow root system) they would harvest it for a canoe.

Now I am sorry, but I always considered this rather primitive and somewhat stupid.

Then today I read about this tribe in Vincennes Indiana — Residents in southwestern Indiana’s melon belt will celebrate the New Year by watching a 550-pound steel-and-foam watermelon soar into the sky and release nine real watermelons as the clock strikes midnight. The giant watermelon includes internal lighting, so it will glow as its lifted 100 feet by a crane.

All of sudden, all those folks in the South Pacific are looking much, much better.

Alaska, somewhere north of the fortieth parallel …. Guilty as charged.

Alaskan Senator, Ted Stevens recently convicted on all seven counts by a jury in Alaska, vowed to “fight this with every ounce of energy I have.” Which is kind of ironic, as it was his close personal relationship with an ENERGY CEO that got him in all this hot water to begin with. Why is it that politicians seem to think that they are bound over by a different set of rules and guidelines than the rest of us. What is it that makes them believe they are above the law?

Kind of like all these people who sit at stoplights at busy intersections, and pick their nose while waiting for the light, do they really believe they are invisible and the rest of us cannot see them?

Kailua-Kona Hawaii

The best bargain at the Salvation Army thrift store was a Richard Simmons videotape. But Mikela Mercier, 11, passed on buying it for a few coins after she found $1,000 in $100 bills inside. Mikela immediately told her mother they needed to turn the tape in. Store manager Jimmy Thennes praised Mikela for her honesty. No word from Richard Simmons at this time.

DeWitt Nebraska

The Vise-Grips plant there will close permanently after Friday, ending about 70 years of operations and costing 330 jobs. Irwin Industrial Tools, which operates the plant, is moving operations to China to lower costs. William Petersen, a Danish immigrant, invented the tool nearly 90 years ago in DeWitt. They ought to take a pair of ’em, and slap them on the crotch of the guy who thought up the idea of shipping American jobs overseas ….. and then sqeeeeeeeeeeze.

In other related Nebraska news, the state is now saying it is going to re-work its safe haven law. People have been driving across state lines to drop off unwanted children, two dozen of them recently, one as old as 17 years of age. The law, which took effect in July, prohibits guardians from being prosecuted for leaving a child at a hospital.

When Snow White dropped by last Tuesday and left five of the dwarfs, the governor declared that he had enough. This law must be re-written to protect the original intent he declared.

Final Spin Cycle

Whirlpool is laying off 5,000 workers and DreamWorks isn’t making any movies …. We seem to be still hemorrhaging around the edges, has anyone noticed. When will Washington figure out we cannot all deliver pizza’s to each other, some of us need jobs.

Here is the new official – unofficial policy …. We got the money ….. Now screw you.

There seems to be this “new attitude” by lenders and lending associations around the country. Even though your credit is perfect, it certainly could be better, and now they are demanding just that. Home loans are no longer a sure thing. This is the new, dynamic landscape of mortgage lending today a new world in which even those with good credit are having trouble getting mortgages or the loan terms that they want.

All this at a time when politicians and economists are wanting to reduce bloated inventories in most cities, that are prone to fail. Compliments of our good friends, the bankers, the only people in the world who can understand the concept of eleven windows …. And three tellers.

Chicken to go

Paris Kentucky — When a Chicken Ranch restaurant employee found her boss lying in an apparent pool of blood, she ran out screaming and called police. But the scenario was a Halloween prank by Joe Watkins, police said. The worker may have the last laugh; police charged Watkins with making a false report to lure her to the scene.

Chillin In Cheyenne

Cheyenne Wyoming — Natural gas prices were so high this summer that regulators warned heating prices in January 2009 could be as much as 79% higher than in January 2008. But Darrell Zlomke, assistant state Public Service Commission administrator, says now that falling natural-gas wholesale prices suggest the increase is more likely to be about 33%. That is the bad news, now here is the good. The used furniture for firewood program seems to be holding on low prices in the area.

Now will everyone who got a 33% raise in wages this year, please raise your hand …. Thought so.

The warming effects of Global Warming are affecting flowers, animals in Yellowstone and they are starting to disappear. Studies are now showing that the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere over the past few decades has caused a loss of many the flower that Henry David Thoreau reordered in his book Walden and also has contributed to a decline in several species’ of native animals once common in Yellowstone.

Two headed fish in the Frazier River in Canada, frogs disappearing in the United States and around the world, species that have been actively protected for most of our lives, are going into severe decline.